The Croods: A New Age

The screenplay manages to strike a relatively deft balance between its character moments and the comedy-adventure set pieces that are the film's real raison d'être.

A film that feels familiar yet troublingly crude.

The Croods: A New Age takes wacky, weird turns, and yet somehow still manages to be dull and lifeless.

It's a conventional animated movie but it's funny and sweet and it's not like every animated movie needs to reinvent the wheel.

The animation is top-notch and there are plentiful critters, including punch monkeys and literal land sharks (my favorite) - to delight the kiddies..

It mostly all comes together in the end, but you still cannot help but watch the film and wonder why the need for just so much of everything.

There's nothing particularly surprising in the plot, but the characters are funny enough to keep us entertained.

An over-energetic, giddily lively rehash of a past hit.

And even though they do not sit among the greatest animated characters of all time, we wouldn't mind another trip back in time to go forward again with the Croods.

The Croods: A New Age seems to strike the right tone at every turn. Nothing about the Crood family is sophisticated, but somehow the filmmakers keep their brutishness as a lovable and funny trait no matter what crazy thing they do next.